This invention relates generally to crafts and home decor, and more particularly to painting murals on walls or other flat surfaces.
Many consumers, and particularly parents of young children, enjoy decorating the walls of their homes with wallpaper, border, and other materials, all exhibiting a “theme” such as zoo animals, balloons, or sports-related themes. This invention is directed primarily to consumers for use in decorating the walls of their homes, but the invention could also be used to decorate any large, flat surface, such as a bulletin board, chalkboard, or sheet of canvas. In addition, the invention can be used on the walls of businesses, studios, and retail establishments, as well as in private homes.
A number of products are available to facilitate painting wall murals by various methods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,639 issued to Davis on Apr. 4, 2000 discloses a kit and method for creating wall murals. Davis discloses positioning a transfer sheet on a surface to be painted. The transfer sheet has a graphic design outlined on a front side and a transfer medium applied to a back side which is placed adjacent the surface to be painted. Selected elements of the design are transferred from the transfer sheet to the surface by rubbing the outline of the graphic design with a tracing instrument. The transfer sheet is then removed and the mural is painted using the traced outline as a guide. The Davis kit and method are designed to enable the transfer sheet to be reapplied in exactly the same position on the surface after the paint has dried, thereby allowing several iterations of the process to paint successively more detailed design elements on top of previously painted design elements. To facilitate repositioning of the transfer sheet on the wall, an alignment guide comprising a horizontal strip of material with vertical alignment markings is taped to the wall. The upper edge of the transfer sheet has an alignment scale with corresponding vertical alignment markings. The transfer sheet is taped to the wall using the alignment scale to align the transfer sheet with the alignment guide. After the tracing is complete, the transfer sheet is removed from the wall to enable painting, but the alignment guide is left on the wall so the transfer sheet can later be repositioned under the alignment guide for more detailed work on the mural.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,934 issued to Johnson on Feb. 5, 2002 discloses a kit and method for creating a wall mural. Johnson discloses using a unified pattern sheet of paper with an outline drawing on the front side and a backing of transfer material, preferably carbon, on the back side. The unified sheet is positioned on a surface to be painted with the back side adjacent the surface. A pencil or other instrument is rubbed against the outline of the mural to transfer the outline to the surface. The pattern sheet is then removed and the outlined areas filled with paint. The Johnson kit and method further contemplate providing instructions for mixing many colors of paint for the mural out of a few basic colors and tint bases, thereby reducing the number of kinds of paint required to complete a mural having many colors.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,336 issued to Matthews on Apr. 17, 2001 discloses still another kit and method for creating wall murals. Matthews discloses placing a pattern sheet coated with a transferable material against a surface to be painted, transferring the pattern to the surface to be painted by applying energy such as by rubbing or heating the pattern sheet, removing the pattern sheet, and then painting in the areas outlined by the pattern. The Matthews kit and method further contemplate pattern sheets with interchangeable design elements, so that a female figure in the main pattern may be cut out and replaced with a similar male figure, for example. Furthermore, Matthews discloses that large patterns may be contained on multiple smaller pattern sheets rather than one large pattern sheet. When using a number of pattern sheets to transfer a large design to a wall, it is necessary to align each of the pattern sheets with the adjacent pattern sheets before transferring the pattern to the wall.
While the foregoing kits and methods can be helpful in the painting of a wall mural, it has been found that it is difficult to obtain proper alignment of pattern transfer sheets when multiple sheets are used to paint a large mural. It is best to avoid relying on the edges of the pattern transfer sheets for alignment because the sheets may not have square edges. Furthermore, many automated printing processes do not allow the printing to extend all the way to the edge of the pattern transfer sheet, thereby necessitating a print-free margin on at least some edges of the sheets. This requires the print-free margins to be cut from the pattern transfer sheets, sometimes by the consumer, which makes use of the resulting edge for alignment even more unreliable. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the design printed on a pattern transfer sheet may not be precisely aligned with the edges of the sheet. Thus, it would be desirable for pattern transfer sheets in a wall mural kit to have alignment features that do not rely on edge-based alignment.
The initial placement of the first pattern transfer sheet in a multi-sheet mural kit is important because any error in orientation of this first sheet will be magnified when the remaining pattern transfer sheets are aligned with the first sheet. Thus, the improper orientation of the overall mural caused by the misalignment of the initial pattern transfer sheet can be readily apparent even though the error may not have been noticeable with only one sheet on the wall. It is possible to obtain good alignment of the initial sheet by conventional methods. In general, however, conventional methods of alignment are time consuming and involve making multiple measurements with one hand while the pattern sheet is held in place on the wall with the other. This increases the chance of erroneous alignment. The conventional methods also tend to rely on edge-based alignment. For example, one such method involves placing a carpenter's level or similar device against an edge or top of the pattern transfer sheet to align the edge vertically or horizontally. This method is difficult to use because a person has to simultaneously hold the level, position the pattern transfer sheet, and tape or otherwise fasten the sheet to the wall. The complexity of the required maneuvers can lead to alignment errors. Furthermore, aligning an edge or top of the pattern transfer sheet with a level invites all the problems associated with edge-based alignment.
After alignment of the initial pattern transfer sheet, the remaining pattern sheets must be aligned with the initial sheet. Typically, this is done by lining up the edges of the sheets, but this also invites the problems associated with edge-based alignment. When elements of the design overlap adjacent pattern transfer sheets, one can avoid edge-based alignment by matching the design elements to the corresponding design element on the adjacent sheet. However, this only possible where design elements overlap the edges of the pattern transfer sheets. Furthermore, it is time consuming and requires effort in making sure the matched design elements truly correspond to each other, a task that can be difficult when a detailed mural is being painted. Also, a design element may be curved or have a limited linear extent, thereby limiting the length of the design element that is useful in aligning the pattern sheets. When the design element offers only a short length for alignment, the pattern transfer sheets may appear to be in alignment when they are actually slightly out of alignment. Another complication in alignment is that small errors in alignment are difficult to detect from the vantage point up close as the pattern transfer sheet is being placed on the wall, but the small errors become much more noticeable standing back after all the sheets are in place. Because of the difficulties involved, alignment of multiple pattern transfer sheets by matching corresponding design elements that overlap adjacent sheets is too unreliable for use in a large mural.
Another difficulty encountered in aligning pattern transfer sheets for transferring a mural pattern to a wall is that specially-adapted adhesive tape with a relatively non-aggressive adhesive, sometimes referred to as painter's tape, is often required to tape the sheets to the wall to avoid damage to any pre-existing paint that may be on the wall. Thus, wall mural kits often include a roll of painter's tape for this purpose. In general, however, manufacturers prefer to keep costs down by including no more tape than necessary to complete the mural. The task of holding an aligned pattern transfer sheet in position while simultaneously tearing pieces of tape off the roll for taping the sheets to the wall is a difficult task for one person. Nonetheless, people may be reluctant to tear off the necessary pieces of tape in advance knowing that there is a limited supply of tape, fearing that they will run out of tape if they use too much tape on the first sheet. Instead, they may prefer to wait to tear off the tape segments until needed so they can make adjustments in the length of the tape if necessary. More reliable alignment would be obtained if there was a way to encourage the user to prepare the tape segments prior to positioning pattern sheets on the wall. From a manufacturer's cost standpoint, it would be preferable if this could be accomplished without providing kits with an unnecessary surplus of tape.
The kit and method described in the Davis patent provide some alignment features in the alignment guide strip and the alignment scale along the top edge of the pattern transfer sheet. However, the alignment scale and alignment guide merely allow the sheet to be repositioned exactly in the original position, whether that position was aligned or not. Davis does not provide any assistance in initial alignment of the pattern transfer sheet. For this Davis relies on the carpenter's level to horizontally align the alignment guide. The alignment features in Davis also rely on edge-based alignment, which poses the potential problems discussed above. Moreover, the Davis alignment features could not be extended to mural kits with multiple rows of pattern transfer sheets because the alignment guide would interfere with placement of an adjoining sheets in abutting relation with the top edge of the initial pattern sheet. Thus, the Davis alignment features suffer significant drawbacks.
Accordingly, there is a need for a wall mural painting kit that has an improved alignment features to avoid the aforementioned problems.